the new\u00a0Office for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet<\/a>, which will be led by cabinet secretary Dame Antonia Romeo.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cSupported by a prime ministerial adviser on AI, this central team will drive the\u00a0government\u2019s overall strategy on AI to unlock the opportunities it holds for growth,\u00a0prosperity\u00a0and public sector transformation,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Cabinet Office will also take the lead on AI adoption across the\u00a0civil\u00a0service, reflecting the urgency of delivering that transformation for the benefit of people across the country. To deliver this step change, responsibility for AI strategy, public sector AI adoption and the AI Security Institute will move to the Cabinet Office\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Smith said the strengthened\u00a0DCMS\u00a0will gain responsibility for digital foundations, digital transformation, digital inclusion and skills, information\u00a0resilience\u00a0and online harms.\u00a0\u201cThis provides critical scale and recognises that culture and technology are inseparable drivers of our modern economy, while bringing coherence to the online safety agenda,\u201d she said. \u201cIt also emphasises our commitment that bringing together levers to support youth policy online and in real life will build a stronger package of support for young people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Smith said DBIST will take on responsibility for emerging sectors in addition to its\u00a0new innovation\u00a0and science briefs. She said the changes signify \u201cour global leadership in science and innovation and the continuing role they play in the UK economy\u201d and \u201cwill align our science and research base directly with commercial application and job creation\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reynolds says changes are not radical<\/p>\n
Earlier today, returning business secretary Reynolds told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme that DBIST would not represent a radical departure from previous models.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been different configurations of the business department,\u201d he said. \u201cI myself have shadowed something which is quite similar to what we decided to do yesterday.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reynolds was shadow business secretary from November 2021 to May 2026, bridging the final 14 months of the old Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the formation of DBT.<\/p>\n
Reynolds insisted that science would \u201cin no way\u201d be a secondary issue in DBIST. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be at the forefront of the business department, working alongside our trade policy consistently with our industrial strategy, our plan for small business, what we\u2019re doing in terms of market-access arrangements with other countries, [and] professional qualifications being recognised,\u201d he said. \u201cBringing those things together in a more powerful department is, in government terms, a big win for science.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reynolds said British science and innovation \u201cis an absolute national asset\u201d and something the nation should be proud of. \u201cThe historic challenge has always been how we commercialise that; how we get the benefits of that for our economy,\u201d he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Royal Society president Sir Paul Nurse said in a statement that it would be \u201cessential\u201d for science not to be a junior partner in the new department. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to see the prime minister and the new secretary of state put their active support behind the full science system,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is how we make science deliver across all parts of government and the best way to make science work for everyone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This story was updated at 15:00 on 21 July 2026 to include extra detail from the government<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is being merged with the Department for Business and Trade just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-703634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}